Time to have some fun and strip the deck.

Rather than simply run strips fore and aft like on the hull, it is more interesting to be more flexible (pun intended😀) with the strips and lay out shapes using different coloured timbers.

Accordingly, strips of both cedar and pine were cut and sanded to approximately 2mm square and then bent and glued into position.

The strips running along the shearlines are not glued to the underlying hull which is still in place on the formwork. This is to allow separation of the deck from the hull once all the strips are in place on the deck. With the two parts separated, the formwork will be removed and the two sections can then be glued together producing a complete hull with no internal formers/bulkheads.

Now I just need to fill in the gaps in the deck with different timbers.😉

After a couple of days stripping (😉) the deck is finished.

I've used two colours of western red cedar plus some pine for contrast. Work proceeded quite quickly as I was able to add strips to different areas while the glue on the previous strips dried.

The strips are mostly 4mm wide and 1.8mm thick. There are a few that are narrower so that they would bend more easily.

I still have to cut out the cockpit and will probably also have to cut a rear hatch to give enough access to the equipment inside. Seems a shame to make holes in it but I think there is no option.

Keen to glass it now as that should improve the contrast between the timbers.

Having completed stripping, time to smooth everything off. I used my mini rebate plane, a piece of hacksaw blade sharpened as a scraper and of course, glasspaper.

Once the hull and deck were smooth, it was time to separate the two halves. Carefully running a knife along the shearline seam and with a bit of twisting and pulling, I was relieved when the two parts separated without any breakage. The PTFE tape used to ensure that the two halves didn't become stuck to the formwork did its job, but left a bit of a mess. Fortunately, it is on the inside, and I expect it will clean up.

With the deck carefully placed to one side, the hull was inverted and covered with a single piece of 1oz fibreglass cloth and coated with epoxy resin. The cloth was cut with the weave running at 45 degrees to the keel as this makes it easier to smooth out without any creases. At this stage, the hull is still attached to the internal formwork to help keep it in shape while applying the epoxy coating. Once the epoxy has fully hardened it will be time to remove the formwork.

Once the epoxy coating to the outside of the hull had hardened, it was time to remove the formwork so that the inside of the hull can be glassed.

A hot air gun was used to soften the hot melt glue on that I'd used to hold the first strips to the formwork. Once softened, the glue was scraped away.

I then found that the formwork would not come out of the hull. Aaargh!!!😠 The endforms at both ends were stuck to the inside of the hull. The endform at one end was carefully cut through with a knife and chisel. Once severed, it was possible to pull the formwork away from the hull. The endform at the other end came away without cutting or damage. What a relief!

Surprised by how light the hull felt once freed from the formwork, I took the opportunity to weight it, together with the deck. Total weight, including the layer of epoxy and glass on the outside of the hull, is only 155g. Allowing 15g for the epoxy coating, that leaves the timber weighing only 140g or 5 ozs. Maybe a bit light for a kayak measuring almost 1m long. Perhaps I should have used thicker strips. 🤔

The inside of the hull was cleaned up and then covered with glasscloth and epoxy. A temporary 'dam' was built at both ends so that they could be filled with a mix of chopped glasscloth and epoxy to strengthen them. This filler will also provide something to attach the rudder mountings to at the stern.

While the epoxy on the hull was left to harden, the deck was reattached to the formwork with hot glue. This is to ensure that the lightweight (flimsy!) deck is held in the correct shape. A layer of lightweight fiberglass with the weave running at 45 degrees was then draped over the deck and epoxy resin applied.

Progress is slow and frustrating with having to wait for the epoxy to harden at each step.

The cockpit needs a coaming adding to strengthen the opening and to give something for the spray skirt to attach to.

The coaming is built from lots of short cedar planks cut from offcuts of the strips used to cover the hull. These were glued all around the edge of the cockpit with CA glue. With all the strips in place and smoothed off, the deck was masked and a layer of glassfibre and epoxy resin applied around the outside.

Once the resin had hardened a layer of masking tape was applied over the resin and several strips of veneer were clamped around the coaming to form a lip. CA glue was applied to the top edge of the veneer layers and allowed to soak in. Once set, the lip was removed and cleaned up/sanded to a reasonable shape before being glued back onto the coaming using temporary spacers from the deck to ensure an even height.

The vertical strips forming the coaming were then trimmed down to the top edge of the lip and another layer of fibreglass and epoxy resin applied covering the whole coaming inside and out.

Finally the deck was removed from the formwork and the underside was coated with fibreglass and epoxy resin.

Before the hull and deck can be permanently joined together, the mountings for the paddling mechanism need to be installed in the hull. Checks also need to be made to make sure that, once the kayak is completed, it will be possible to install the mechanism through the cockpit opening.

The mechanism was developed and tested while mounted in a cardboard mock-up of the kayak. Now, cardboard supports were cut to position the mechanism in the hull in the correct longitudinal position, and at the right height. Once everything looked to be OK the cardboard supports were used as templates to cut the final shapes from 3mm ply. These were then tacked into position with superglue and the mechanism installed for a final check with the deck in place.

It soon became clear that it was not going to be possible to install the mechanism in one piece, through the cockpit opening. This was not entirely unexpected based on the experience with the cardboard mock-up. The mechanism baseplate was cut in two, separating the paddler from the remainder of the mechanism. The two pieces are held in position with M4 dome head screws which fasten into a tapped brass plate glued underneath the plywood support rail. There is only one linkage between the paddler and the mechanism which will be straightforward to attach through the cockpit opening.

As the cockpit opening is filled with the mechanism and the paddler there isn't much access available for anything else, so I decided to add a hatch behind the cockpit to give access to the rudder servo and the radio gear. It is not unusual to have a hatch in this location on full sized kayaks.

A paper template was drawn up on the computer, printed and taped to the deck. A scalpel was then used to cut around the hatch outline. It took a while, but eventually the hatch came away in one piece.

The template was rescaled on the computer to produce two more templates for a plywood rim to be fitted to the opening. The rims were cut from 1.5mm ply and glued into position.

The hatch will sit flush in the opening. It will eventually be fitted with a neoprene gasket and held in place with elastic straps. The double plywood rim creates space for the gasket while keeping the hatch cover flush with the deck.

In addition to the rowing mechanism, I need to install the battery, receiver, paddling electronics and rudder servo.

For the battery, I decided to use 5 NiMh cells rated at 3300mAh. The decision was based on several factors.
1. Experience with the rowing boat where I've used 4 cells rated at 3700mAh. The rowing boat had 9 servos plus a 'transistor radio' and a smoke generator for Ben's pipe. The battery typically gives an hour or so rowing time, more if Ben doesn't light his pipe!🤣. The kayak has 3 servos plus the drive motor (a modified servo) so the selected battery should give plenty of duration.
2. The kayak needs some ballast and I prefer to use larger cells for this, rather than having to add dead weight.
3. The selected cells will fit under the paddler (just!)

The position of the battery under the paddler brings the centre of gravity of the kayak to a position just behind the location of the paddle which I think is where it should be. I may need to add some more ballast to balance everything up once the build is complete.

The receiver and paddle electronics are fitted into a plastic box (shown without it's lid) which sits just behind the paddler and battery.

The rudder servo is mounted behind the receiver. Both the receiver and the servo can be accessed through the rear hatch.

If you look carefully at the differences between photos 4 and 5 you will notice one of my 'mistakes'. Having glued the servo mount in the position shown in photo 4, I realized that I couldn't access the rear fixing screw through the hatch opening. The mount was carefully cut free and repositioned as shown in photo 5. Glad I spotted the issue at this stage rather than later.

Having a rudder is optional on a full size kayak, but I think it is going to prove essential on the model if there is to be any chance of it travelling in a straight(ish) line.

Drawings of a typical rudder were copied from Nick Schade's book, scaled and glued to wooden blanks. The blade is cut from western red cedar, the other parts from birch ply. The parts were cut out, cleaned up and brass tubes fitted to each of the pivot holes to act as bearings. A brass fitting was made to mount the rudder on the stern of the kayak.

To route the control lines from the rudder to the below deck servo two aluminium tubes were bent and glued to the underside of the rear deck with their aft ends protruding through the deck. These ends were then trimmed flush with the deck. The inboard ends of the tubes were flared.

Two cords will run from either side of the rudder, through the tubes and then to either side of the servo arm. The cords will be tensioned with either elastic or springs. I prefer the idea of using springs as they won't perish over time.

Final assembly will not be done until the deck has been attached to the hull, but I needed to get the aluminium tubes in place before then.